ON THE VANGUARD

A LIFE OF PASSION
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20

Passion. What an interesting word. It can define what a husband and wife share between each other. This same word can define a feeling or craving for something, whether sinful or not. Webster defines it as a violent agitation of mind in anger or an intense desire. Passion can be good or bad and is only able to be determined based on whom or what we are passionate is for. I read an article yesterday that defined passion as such:
Passion is a double-edged sword: it can be the energy that catapults us to freedom from sleepwalking through life; or it can be the powerful force, the gravitational pull, which keeps us in a self-destructive cycle.
So then, whom or what are we passionate for?
For most of my life I named one passion but lived passionately for another. At the time I was five I remember accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior. This confession was soon followed by the action of baptism. But within a matter of years I would take a walk down a dirt path that was quickly becoming a junk yard and stumble upon my first pornographic magazine. Although I would continue to confess God as my passion, my heart would eventually gravitate toward this sin. Only later would I realize the true effects of this self-destructive cycle.
Through events in which God uses to grab our attention, God found a way to grab mine. It was in this time that I was forced to make a decision as to whom I would live for. Would I continue to live in this destruction, knowing that I was killing myself, or I would I grab hold of Him whose hand was reaching out? I chose the latter, to take God’s hand.
Paul chose the same, to give up living for the wrong things and start living with passion for Christ. He considered himself crucified with Christ. As such, the actions and desires of Christ became the actions and desires that he walked in. And with that spark of Christ in him, Paul changed the world. Not only did he go on three missionary journeys preaching Christ, suffering hardships, but he also wrote a majority of the New Testament which we still have today to encourage us in our relationship with Christ. His example of passion for Christ is the example that I strive to have even now.
I am done putting my desires to no use. The things I chased after years ago are not things that interest me anymore. I want to follow after the desires that God has placed in me. But in order to that, I too must be crucified with Christ and live the life of faith in the One who loves me. I encourage you to question who you are passionate about. If not Christ, then are you truly living, or just getting by?